Period 44: Ding Dong Lady
'Ding Dong Lady '''is the 44th chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 1st chapter in the volume 12 manga. Premise ''Hikari spends her days alone after school because of her parents working. But after a large dispute occurs between her and her mother, she starts to notice her doorbell won't stop ringing... '' Yomi's Introduction At home Yomi curiously asks the Reader what they like to do when they have to be alone, like play games or watch television, read manga. She remarks that it's nice they can still enjoy themselves when suddenly, her door bell rings. She mentions that her guest has arrived. Summary Hikari is in an extremely foul mood one day at school and her friends can only assume she had yet another disagreement with her mom. Still being brought to tears by what happened, Hikari angrily attempts to justify her feelings by explaining that once she got home she started to play a game. She was ''nearly finished with it when her mother showed up in an irate mood to see she not only didn't do her homework, but she also didn't fold the laundry like she asked, shutting off the game in the process. Hikari was horrified as she watched her unplug her game system, deciding to take it away until she straightened up. Hikari chewed her out for this by threatening not to speak to her again and she ran off in tears after her mom failed to believe her. She hates how strict her mother is over every little thing, she doesn't understand why she can't just relax and do whatever she wants when her parents aren't home. They both work after she gets home from school, and upon arrival she notes that she has a lot of time before they show up so she decides to try to locate her missing game system. After finding it with little effort, she grabs a snack and sits down to start playing, reasoning that she has about two hours of play time. But as she plays, she notices the doorbell continuously ringing. She assumes it's only the neighbors though, but when she realizes it's coming from their door she hesitantly gets up to check. She recalls her mother warning her not to answer the door if they weren't home and heavily wishes they had an intercom she could use, and with nothing else she slowly peaks through the hole on the door to get a better look. But she sees nobody there. The next day Hikari explains what happened to her friends after school. However they think nothing of it, suggesting it was probably just some boy playing an annoying prank- it's fairly common as of late. They then remind her how much more important it is that she focuses on making up with her mother; something Hikari isn't too thrilled to be reminded of since she's still mad. Her friends take off and she is left to consider thinking about it until an older girl approaches her, who she happily identifies as Konomi. Konomi was the former leader of her friend group, having been a year older than the rest of of them. But last year she graduated, so now she attends middle school. Hikari takes a moment to admire her uniform and ask what she thinks of school, but after answering her Konomi brings up that she decided to seek her out to talk about the ringing doorbell. She read a story about a related case sometime back, a mother had left her sick child at home because she had to go to work, but by the time she got back she realized they had died from their lung infection. Out of guilt she committed suicide, and now her bloodied spirit searches homes in an attempt to find her child. She will ring doorbells and ask to be let in, but no matter what the child mustt not answer or open the door, even if the ringing stopped. Or else her mother is put at risk and might be taken into another world. However, Konomi quickly admits that the story could be false, as the gossip website has a tendency of posting fictional stories as well. With that, the girls separate and Hikari reaches home- but by now she finds it incredibly awkward after hearing that story. With everything making her uneasy, she mentally convinces herself that she doesn't want her mom to come home early and how she doesn't believe silly rumors, and she decides to pass time by going to visit Yato, her friend. But as she prepares to go she hears footsteps approaching the door and nervously forces herself to look through the hole again. This time she is greeted by an eye that causes her a great fright and she falls back, attempting to determine what or who it was. She recalls the story as someone begins ringing her doorbell, and frightened she runs into the other room to hide beneath her blanket. That evening she approaches her dad to speak to him. She asks if he can come home earlier, but when he asks why she mentions that someone has been ringing the doorbell several times these past few days. However, when he asks what the person looks like, Hikari realizes he probably wouldn't believe her if she told him so she tell him to just come home earlier. He claims that he can't do that though, and seeing her mother arrive she briskly turns away to leave the room, causing her mom to remark on how stubborn she is. The next day Hikari worriedly tries to determine what to do. With her friends busy with cram school, she has nobody else to turn to. She sadly makes her way home until she bumps into Konomi and quickly asks that she joins her at home. She feels a heavy remorse by the request but Konomi claims not to mind, feeling guilt for having told her the story to begin with. She promises to stay with her until she feels better, much to Hikari's relief. She wishes she had a big sister like her. To both girls alarm, the doorbell suddenly rings. Konomi gets up to answer but Hikari attempts to stop her by bringing up the story. Konomi is doubtful though, and she opens the door to find a young man with newspapers, asking if her dad was home. He comments that he came by the prior day but nobody was home, causing her to realize the eye she saw was probably his, but before she can say anything he is suddenly chased away by their irate land lord, who apologizes to Hikari for the interruption. He explains how this salesman has been bothering other tenants lately and keeps ringing the doorbell until someone answers. Feeling relieved, Hikari is approached by a curious Konomi, who she sends home now feeling a lot better. She is also hungry, so she prepares a small snack and sits down to unwind before she begins playing some games again. But in the process, she walks by the laundry in a basket and slowly picks it up. She sets them on the floor and one by one, starts to fold them up deciding to apologize to her mom when she gets home. It's been a few days since they talked and she really wants to make up with her. Noticing it's almost 8:00 pm now, Hikari wonders where her mother could be. It isn't like her to come home late like this. But just then the doorbell rings, and she assumes it's her mother as she gets up. But she wonders how it could be her when she normally has her keys on hand, and she approaches it to open the door. But after hesitating she notices the door handle start to rattle, and she grabs it in a desperate attempt to keep it shut and thinks about the rumor again, realizing how much the person is to get inside. She then realizes that now she truly is alone. Before she had Konomi with her, and the prior day it was the salesman, but now, there is nobody with her. Angrily holding the door shut, Hikari yells at the figure saying they aren't allowed to enter her home. She wants to make up with her mother, so only she can come inside. Just then the door knob stops moving, and she slowly steps back to look- only for it to suddenly turn and the door to slowly open as she stares in shock as she sees her mom standing in front of her. She asks her why she looks so scared and begins teasing her under the suspicion she might still be mad. To her surprise, Hikari tearfully hugs her and apologizes for her behavior, and her mother, happy she isn't upset anymore embraces her in return. At her place, Konomi has just finished updating her friends on how things went pranking Hikari. She was very frightened by the story, but because of all the stress build up she enjoys playing little pranks like this to unwind. It's then her doorbell rings and she gets up to see who it is, opening it to find nobody there as she notes her mom is already home. To her horror, she feels a tight grip on her ankle and looks to find the grotesque, bloodied corpse of the mother, who remarks that she has finally found her child. Yomi's Epilogue She opens the door and happily invites the male standing there inside. He explains that he thought he would stop by since he happened to be in the neighborhood. Then she turns to the Reader to warn them to make sure they pay attention whenever answering the door, then she shuts it. Characters *Hikari *Konomi *Hikari's Mother *Yato and Hikari's other friend Quotes Trivia *Yomio makes a cameo in Yomi's epilogue. Gallery Category:Chapters Category:Vol 12 Category:Manga